WICKER PARK — Crocodile's basement dance floor turned dangerous around 2:30 a.m. Sunday as a Little Village man was punched in the face and thrown to the ground by a man who kicked him several times before running upstairs and fleeing the area.
"I tried to grab his legs, to make the connection less intense, but my glasses had been knocked out, and I was dizzy from the initial sucker punch," said Hector Tellez, a 29-year-old former security guard who said he was subjected to the brutal blows because he'd asked a woman to dance.
"She was a very wonderful, pretty black woman, but I asked the wrong woman to dance," said Tellaz.
Shortly after asking the woman to dance, a man that Tellez now assumes to have been "her dance partner or potential boyfriend" approached him.
"He put his hand on me, and I put my hand on his chest and said 'please don't do that,' " Tellez said.
After that exchange, Tellez said he and the woman went to the other side of the dance floor and Tellez, who said he'd come to the bar alone, started to dance again.
A few minutes later the man came back and "started to swing," he said.
During the attack the man, who was wearing a Chicago Bears T-shirt, was saying, "What the f-- you shouldn't be doing this s--," Tellez recalled.
The attack stopped because the woman and a security guard were able to pull the man away, Tellez said.
"He ran, she ran. I did not want a confrontation; I did not follow him. I was hoping security was able to see him. I wish I could talk to him and ask him why did he feel this need to do this? I think he was very disturbed individual," Tellez said.
Tellez said he thought partying in Wicker Park would be safe.
"I wanted to party on the North Side, because on the South side it can be rough. I like neighborhoods where I don't have to deal with violence, but I ended up dealing with it," he said.
Tellez said the man that attacked him was black, about 6-foot, 3-inches tall, muscular, with short hair, possibly in his 30s.
Tellez filed a police report and said he wishes the man had been held by Crocodile security guards until police arrived so he could face charges.
"But I understand holding such a wild individual until the police came is extremely difficult. The security guard did the best he could, and the owner [of bar] said he was sorry that it happened to me," Tellez said.
Crocodile Lounge's owner, Radek Hawryszcuk, could not immediately be reached for comment. The lounge, at 1540 N. Milwaukee Ave., has been the scene of other late-night fights requiring police attention, including one in which a beer-bottle throwing couple injured a bystander in May, and one in which a cleaning mop that was used as a weapon last spring.
Officer Janel Sedevic, a Chicago Police spokeswoman, confirmed on Monday that police responded to the battery around 2:40 a.m. Sunday and that the victim refused emergency room care.
Area North detectives are investigating, according to Sedevic.
Anyone with information can call 312-744-8266.
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